Just wanted to take a moment and talk about the state of GAF's in-game presence in Guild Wars 2 as well...

Origins...
The first rumblings of a GAFGuild began in early 2012. Community regulars began to organize almost immediately, establishing the GAFGuild website, Mumble server and even a few informative podcasts before the game even launched. A spreadsheet was compiled to keep track of everyone who volunteered their username so they could be quickly invited; this list capped out at 535 members before the game even launched.

When the head-start first began on August 25, Gaming Age Force [GAF] was established on Stormbluff Isle and quickly swelled to the 500 member cap; a second “overflow” guild “[GAFO]” was created to handle the excess members. At one point, this second guild was almost halfway full, bringing our numbers to about 750 GAFers, their family and friends.

Post-Launch...
Not surprisingly, GAFGuild quickly became one of the largest guilds on the server (certainly the largest that doesn’t publicly recruit). Though the initial crush of members at launch has since fallen off, the guild continually flirts with the 500 member cap (at least four ‘cullings’ have been performed) and the guild still sees ~50 active members during prime time.

Looking Ahead...
A year later, GAFGuild remains strong; there have been no radical shifts in leadership and the guild remains open to everyone. Gaming Age Force is one of, if not the longest lived GAF-based guilds, and very likely the largest as well. We run the gamut from World vs. World warriors to top-rated PVP players, casual PVE members to hardcore dungeon delvers.

As we enter our second year as a close-knit community, the same familiar faces intermingle with new faces invited every week. Our mumble server is still supported by donations from our membership and we’ve taken up donations to pay for four members to transfer servers (approximately $100 in real-world money, including two $25 gem cards from Arken).

I remember the first time I learned of the game, and started getting interested in it. It was about two years ago, and I had heard of the game, but I was too deep into WoW's Cataclysm to really care about anything else. After a while of playing, I became disillusioned with the gameplay. I wanted to be able to actually dodge my enemies' attacks, and also not have to play as a tank or healer if I didn't want to and do raid content. When I learned about how Guild Wars 2 was going to abolish this, I was intrigued. How could they do something so against current MMO trends and be successful.

After that, I resolved the next year to follow the game with fervor, and it's been a wild ride ever since.

Good for them I think, I was hyped but I couldn't get into it. Got tired of it after 2 weeks.

Any particular reason? The Infographic there is mostly the big-ticket items, but there's a lot of smaller Quality of Life changes. If we actually made a post with everything they've changed, it'd take multiple posts.

Originally Posted by Orcastar

And how many active players?

Quite a few:

That's the crowd at a world event (Claw of Jormag) at around midnight Pacific (3am on the east coast).

They just recently released some player data in advance of the game launching in China; There are 2.5 million active players per week. On average 508,428 hours of GW2 are played every day (3.5 million hours per week).

Anecdotally, the GAF Guild in game gets about 40-50 active players each night (more on the weekends, of course) and sits at 378 members (after hitting the 500 member camp 3 or 4 times since launch).

Never was so hyped about a game. Couldn't partake in the beta, but played during the headstart by preordering it from their website. Was one of the best experiences I had on the PC during the first two weeks. Had to stop playing after that because I had to move to a new location but still miss it sometimes.

I did make it to (first GW2 book spoiler) Killeens grave. Was the personal accomplishment I wanted to attain before I had to stop playing. Beautiful location surrounded by death and despair. Can't wait to return to this game every now and then.

What about Elementalist? They felt horrible at release. So did my Thief.

Every class got a nice pass a few months back, definitely worth checking out. If you already have the game, the only thing it will cost you to see is bandwidth (granted, there's a lot of content you missed that you'll need to download).

Originally Posted by TheWriter

Can you kill Logan yet? I hope so.

No, but you're not alone in that sentiment... though I think his line is shorter than Trehearne's...

Ah GW2. I so want to keep loving you. I've played a year and my love is ever so slowly drying up. Political conflicts, speeches, votings, oppressed workers and futuristic cyper-punk air pirates was just too much for me. I think I'll come back when that particular arch is over. Which I guess is in 6 months or so.

Good combat for a MMO though. Loved every second of it - having played around 1200 hours. :)

This game is the only thing I play these days and it is awesome. Even though I've played this game for 1400 hours, looking at the OP makes me wow at all the things they have added and I only payed 60$.

Played GW1 like crazy back in the day and I was going to play this game no matter what but I don't think I would have played it as much or as often if it wasn't for the awesome community of people in the GAF Guild.

THe game is really cool, but having the same weapon attacks for 80 levels got boring, and I dont like how the characters dont actually feel attached to the ground, it just feels floaty and loose.

I actually think the same weapon attacks is a genius move on their part, and it's to promote muscle memory. The more you remember what your weapons do, the less likely you're going to have to look at the bar to remember what they do. Everything becomes natural, like learning how to use a sword in real life. Once you know, you just go.

GW1: 6 million in four years, spread among 3 campaigns and one expansion.
GW2: Over 3 million in around 4 months. (They hit that milestone in January.)

Well deserved! GW2 is a fantastic game and I love ANet's forward thinking design and brisk schedule for new content. The lack of monthly fee is a game changer, since it makes it super easy to jump back in and start enjoying everything that's been added.

Originally Posted by RaySpencer

THe game is really cool, but having the same weapon attacks for 80 levels got boring, and I dont like how the characters dont actually feel attached to the ground, it just feels floaty and loose.

Well, having the same basic attacks for each weapon set isn't really any different from other action-RPGs like Monster Hunter or Demon's Souls. They're the basic tools that establish how your character fights, and they have different uses depending on your choice of glyphs, traits, and the other five skills.

GW2 is still my biggest gaming disappointment ever. I spend thousands of hours in GW1, but GW2 seens to have removed everything that made the first game interesting (mission-based storyline, thousands of skills to select, dual-classing, energy system, class-specific armor, etc.). And besides that, the game uses the despicable system of lockboxes, for which reason alone I have to shun the game.

I played GW2 a good bit when it came out last year and really scratched that MMO itch. I kind of got burned out around Wintersday and haven't been back since. I did make it through the giant world event, which was fun.

I dont really play much anymore....i wish they would add more varied enemies, im so so tired of wurms and fucking birds lol. In fact all the enemy types annoy the fuck out of me. It is still a great game for the value, they add new content all the time i just dont know its missing something and i cant quite put my finger on it.

GW2 is still my biggest gaming disappointment ever. I spend thousands of hours in GW1, but GW2 seens to have removed everything that made the first game interesting (mission-based storyline, thousands of skills to select, dual-classing, energy system, class-specific armor, etc.). And besides that, the game uses the despicable system of lockboxes, for which reason alone I have to shun the game.

ANet specifically said they already made GW1, they had no intentions of making it again. And honestly those black lion boxes are only worth opening for the chance at some skins which you don't even need unless you REALLY like the look. It's not like the boxes have items in it that are a requirement in order to play the game or something. That and you can just convert gold to gems really makes it a non issue.